Photo of Rev. 1 of the bench built about one year ago.
The side slats Gorilla glued to concrete blocks held up pretty well. I had a couple of slats that broke loose mainly because I used green bamboo (not dried). They buckled as they dried. The polyurethene did not hold up after taking a beating during winter. I added on to the walkway in back of the bench and had other slats break off when I did a combination power wash and acid clean on the new walk slabs. The worst problem was mold or mildew that built up inside the slats and worked it's way to the outside of the slats (discoloration). I used one coat of polyurethene on the inside of the slats but it broke down very quickly. The slats held but looked real bad.
Update: I cut and dried a lot of madake culms over winter. I split several culms a few weeks ago.
I stripped off almost all of the old slats but left the top (full culms/nonsplit) alone. I did a redesign
and cut the slats. I sanded them then primed them with marine deck varnish after filling the open ends with filler (and allowing it to dry). Key - dry bamboo & improved water proofing. I stared glueing the slats on after cleaning up the concrete blocks. I will add more filler & varnish when the slats are on & dried. On the top, with full culms, I replaced the filler between culms and sanded the culms prior to using the marine varnish. I have another bench working that uses more of a bamboo/sandstone motiff.
More later.
New design is very difficult but rewarding - more small size pcs. 9) I have multiple projects that require multiple tasking for end of year completion. Got to be smart to bring them into a successful completion. Rgds
